"They put a lot of pressure on our guards and the posts. It was hard to get a shot off," Boylan guard Jensen Blassage said. "We tried to work the ball around as best we could, but they had long arms and got the steals."

Yet, somehow, Boylan made a run and had a chance to tie when it missed a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer. But Geneva pulled away again in the first two minutes of the third quarter and beat Boylan 60-41 in a Class 4A girls basketball supersectional Monday at Judson University.

"It felt good" at halftime," Blassage said. "We knew we could play with them when we got on a little bit of a run, but their crowd was really on our back. They were getting their intensity up and ours was going down. We tried to keep our intensity up, but their defense was stopping us."

Geneva (26-5) jumped to a quick 9-2 lead. Just when it looked impossible for Boylan to score inside, the smallest player on the court, 5-foot-3 Casey Pettit, turned an offensive rebound into a three-point play and added a second basket in the lane a few minutes later.

But those were five rare inside points for Boylan. The 5-foot-7 Jensen scored 19 points for the Titans (27-5). Pettit was next for the Titans with five. Geneva, on the other hand, got 18 points from 6-2 freshman Grace Loberg, 16 from 6-foot Abby Novak, 11 from 5-11 Morgan Seberger and seven from 6-1 Sidney Santos.

Geneva, after seeing an 11-point lead cut to 25-22 at the half, scored the first eight points of the second half and 18 of their 20 third-quarter points by going inside.

"We thought we were right there, but they got some good looks down low with their posts and hit some big shots," Blassage said.

"They played really tough defense, but I also think the nerves got to us," center Halle Stull said.

"It was tough for us to penetrate their zone because of their length and they beat us to the boards," Perrone said of Geneva's 18-8 edge on the offense boards. "They outrebounded us something else. We stood around and watched for the ball and they were flying by."

While Geneva moves on to the state semifinals, Boylan reached the supersectionals for only the second time in 11 seasons.

"Getting to the supersectionals is a great season," Blassage said.

Perrone was "disappointed, of course, that we lost the supersectional, but there are no regrets. The kids had a fantastic season."